This invention relates to a disposable resuscitator comprising an elongated, elastically squeezable bag having a first opening, a one-way valve for intake of oxygen-containing air mounted in the first opening, a second opening which is in airtight connection with a valve housing comprising a pipe stub, which can be connected with a facial mask, and an outlet opening for exhalation air, the valve housing containing a valve comprising a valve seat and a disc shaped valve body of an elastomeric material, the valve allowing oxygen-containing air to flow from the bag into the pipe stub when the pressure within the bag exceeds atmospheric pressure and exhalation air to flow from the pipe stub to the outlet opening when the pressure within the bag is lower that the pressure within the pipe stub.
A re-usable resuscitator constructed essentially as described above is well known see for example DK patent specification No. 151.288. This known resuscitator comprises a squeeze bag comprising a self-expanding foldable insert.
After such a known resuscitator has been used for the treatment of one patient, in order to be used for the treatment of another patient it must be dismantled, cleaned and disinfected. Since this is a time-consuming operation, and further involves the risk that the resuscitator may be re-assembled incorrectly, there is a growing interest for limiting the use of such a resuscitator to one person only and discarding it after use.
This has created a need for the development of simple and inexpensive, yet reliable resuscitators.
It has been proposed to use squeeze bags without an insert and consisting of a plastic material, and in order to reduce the freight costs, the bags of some of the known apparatus have an annular folding zone of a reduced wall thickness so as to allow one end of the elongated bag to be folded into the remaining part of the squeeze bag. A resuscitator comprising such a foldable squeeze bag is disclosed in DE patent publication No. 1.616.421.
The pipe stub of the known disposable resuscitators is located co-axially and in parallel with the longitudinal axis of the squeeze bag, and it is consequently necessary to provide an angled connecting piece between the pipe stub and the facial mask so as to allow the resuscitator to be operated by a single person by performing a rhymthic compression of the bag with one hand and by maintaining the mask in contact with the patient's face in such a manner that it covers both the nose and the mouth with the other hand.
DE patent publication No. 1.277.520 discloses a re-usable resuscitator having a valve housing located partly within the squeeze bag. The valve housing of this known resuscitator consists of two valve parts which are pressed together and which at their periphery form a flange fitting into a corresponding groove on the inner side of the bag opening. The valve located within the valve housing described consists of a circular valve disc having a centrally located pin attached to a perforated valve seat forming part of one of the two valve parts. The interior surface of the other valve part comprises an annular bead provided around the outlet opening of the valve and effectively preventing oxygen-containing gas from leaking through the outlet opening of the valve. The valve housing of the known resuscitator also comprises a pipe stub extending in parallel with the longitudinal axis of the squeeze bag.